Benjamin Rogovy thought he had an idea so brilliant—getting panhandlers to hold advertising signs—that he trademarked it: Bumvertising. Not an original idea, but could it be effective? As Regine asks, "aren't we looking away whenever we see a homeless?"
This reminds me of an exhibit I saw in Seattle in '98. The artist, Josh Greene, came at the homeless/advertising idea from a different angle. He borrowed the signs of downtown panhandlers and redesigned them using the exact same verbiage but with a colorful, pseudo-advertising sheen. Then he gave the signs to their original creators to see if they were any more effective at attracting money. If I remember correctly, they weren't.
ReplyDeleteI think any way of hiring a homeless person should be a good thing. I am sure they do not get paid that well for having a sign at the bottom, it's not like they get paid by the hour (they only get $1-$5 a day plus sandwich and bottle of water for advertising all day long in extreme weather conditions, making a lousy 5 cents an hour to 25 cents per hour, wow, BIG MONEY)...
ReplyDeleteNow the panhandler is less likely to get spare change from passer-bys as it looks as though they have a "job" advertising (they may actually make less money than before), this was the case with "panners" that sold the "Spare Changes" or "Street News" type newspapers (they could get much more money begging without selling papers).
What I think bumvertisments should do is make it so that if the agency used all 4 sides of a panhandlers sign (maybe even the backside), they panhandler should have an oppritunity to least make close to minimum wage (aprox $6/hr), that's about a $1.50 per ad per hour. This would be enuough income generated so that the homeless person could actually get a cheap hotel for the night so they can sleep well and clean up for the next day of work. Giving a panhandler $1-5 dollars for a long days work is not helping, that will not even cover breakfast the following morning! Maybe give these homeless people warm jackets to wear that will allow more advertising on the back and front too (will help homeless stay warm).
http://www.SpareSomeChange.com is the homeless search engine (poverty link portal) I made.